Save the rooks

May 3, 2006

Updated: Monday, June 7, 2010 (09:14)

PLEASE can something be done about all the fledgling rooks that get splattered on the hill on the B1040 between Warboys and Bury. The trees overhang the road, creating a sort of tunnel. I presume that as the rooks grow, they push each other out of the nes

PLEASE can something be done about all the fledgling rooks that get splattered on the hill on the B1040 between Warboys and Bury. The trees overhang the road, creating a sort of tunnel. I presume that as the rooks grow, they push each other out of the nest and fall onto the road.

Last year I counted 26 young rooks that had obviously been killed that day. They were all between the bottom of the hill and before the right turning to Wistow - 200 yards.

On a number of occasions I have seen young rooks sitting tight against the verge but on the road and have parked up and walked back, picked them up and taken them down the driveway and into the garden of the house there. The fledglings are usually next to several of their nest mates and looking very confused as the traffic thunders by, literally inches away from them. They seem stunned and you can just pick them up. How anyone can just drive past I don't know.

Apart from the welfare of the rooks, this must surely be a danger to traffic. It is not a bit of road that you can stop or swerve on and most drivers will try to avoid hitting them.

Is there any way that a sort of safety net can be rigged up above the road? At least this would give them a good chance of getting back into the trees or cause them to bounce off the sides onto the fields. I realise that normal netting would result in their getting entangled but I imagine a solution has been found to this sort of problem in the past. Maybe the RSPB knows of one.